"There seems to
be some trick of the heart that enables us to recall past hardship fondly."

[BGM 'Aozora no Shita, Kimi no Tonari']

This is a quote by
the poet and artist Hoshino Tomihiro-san. Recalling past hardships fondly -
that often happens, doesn't it?

This was sent in by
listener Natsumi-san from Saitama. Her message reads:

"Ohno-san, good
morning. I'm now at university studying for exams to become a nursery school
teacher and the real thing will be in June. I'm learning a lot from my
professors and seniors. They tell me that these'll become good memories, but
right now my anxiety and fear is huge. I've worried so much that my back
hurts; please give me a word of encouragement."

Ahhh. No matter what
it is, there's always plenty of worries about new things. Well, the tough
things are naturally the ones you won't forget. But the fact that you can
laugh about it now means that you've grown. Mm.

Well, as for me,
there was a lot of that in my 20s. (laughs) Mm.

My 20s... When I did
a stageplay done by a foreign director, there were workshops and stuff. Man,
I really disliked that... (laughs)

Like, we'd stand in
front of the director and he'd be like, "Make me get out of the way
within a minute, just using your words," and he'd say, "Go!"

If we spoke in
Japanese, he wouldn't understand - but I didn't know English either. So like,
just by saying stuff like "Move aside!" or "Go!", he
wouldn't move. It wouldn't persuade him to move.

We couldn't use our
hands. So I'd be doing it for a minute and gradually, it'd be like, "10
seconds left," and I'd panic and then be like, "Move! Move!"
(laughs)

The director and the
staff would all be watching and I really hated that. I thought, "I've
had enough!" So I had practice sessions like that.

But it was
interesting. I bet I wrote it in my journal at the time. Re-reading that
would be interesting. Like, "Seriously fed up of this" or "I
was so annoyed" and so on. (laughs) "When will the actual
performance start?" I wrote stuff like that.

Reading it now would
be interesting. Man, that did happen, huh?

Mm. But the
interesting thing was, after having those workshops, my feelings and thoughts
about acting changed. So of course there was a point to it all.

Mm. At that time I
didn't know it. I was like, "What's the point of doing this? I just want
to hurry up and learn the lines".

There was meaning in
the order of things. So like, Natsumi-san, for you too, there's meaning to
it. "Naturally, it was because of all that training that I am where I am
today." There'll come a day where you'll think that.

So for the sake of
your future self, it'd be best if you could enjoy it as you go now. Um, this
training, as you're going through this period, why don't you try keeping a
journal of it all? Write down all your hardship in detail and when you read
it later, I think you'll smile.

Like, you'll think,
"Uwaa, I was worried about such things!" Mm. That'll be
interesting.